China sentences 10 for detaining petitioners

Clothes hang from a green entrance door of a single-story brick house, known as a "black jail" in Beijing Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. A Beijing court sentenced 10 people to prison Tuesday for illegally detaining citizens trying to take their local grievances to the central government, state media reported, in a possible sign the government is trying to rein in abuses. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails." (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
— AP

Clothes hang from a green entrance door of a single-story brick house, known as a "black jail" in Beijing Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. A Beijing court sentenced 10 people to prison Tuesday for illegally detaining citizens trying to take their local grievances to the central government, state media reported, in a possible sign the government is trying to rein in abuses. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails." (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
/ AP

Clothes hang from the entrance of a single-story brick house, known as a "black jail" in Beijing Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. A Beijing court sentenced 10 people to prison Tuesday for illegally detaining citizens trying to take their local grievances to the central government, state media reported, in a possible sign the government is trying to rein in abuses. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails." (AP Photo/Andy Wong)— AP

Clothes hang from the entrance of a single-story brick house, known as a "black jail" in Beijing Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. A Beijing court sentenced 10 people to prison Tuesday for illegally detaining citizens trying to take their local grievances to the central government, state media reported, in a possible sign the government is trying to rein in abuses. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails." (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
/ AP

FILE - In this May 8, 2012 file photo, a petitioner, trying to draw public attention to his case, yells out of a police van window, calling for justice, before he is taken away by the police in Beijing, China. Chinese state media said a Beijing court Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, sentenced 10 people to prison for illegally detaining petitioners. It's an apparent blow for attempts by local governments to cover up abuses. The 10 had detained petitioners from central Henan province who traveled to the capital hoping to bring their complaints to the central government. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails." Chinese letters on the vehicle read: public security. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)— AP

FILE - In this May 8, 2012 file photo, a petitioner, trying to draw public attention to his case, yells out of a police van window, calling for justice, before he is taken away by the police in Beijing, China. Chinese state media said a Beijing court Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, sentenced 10 people to prison for illegally detaining petitioners. It's an apparent blow for attempts by local governments to cover up abuses. The 10 had detained petitioners from central Henan province who traveled to the capital hoping to bring their complaints to the central government. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails." Chinese letters on the vehicle read: public security. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)
/ AP

BEIJING 
A Beijing court sentenced 10 people to prison Tuesday for illegally detaining citizens trying to take their local grievances to the central government, state media reported, in a possible sign the government is trying to rein in abuses.

Illegal detention of petitioners is believed to be common, but is, like all legal and public order issues in China, a matter of great sensitivity. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained illegally in shabby hostels known as "black jails."

The government has recently begun acknowledging the existence of such places as part of modest attempts to stamp out the most glaring abuses of power.

It has also said it will stop handing down labor camp sentences this year under a system that allows police to lock up petitioners, government critics and others for up to four years without a trial, although details are still unclear.

In the case Tuesday, 11 petitioners from central Henan province had traveled to the capital hoping to air their grievances under a system that harkens back to ancient times when Chinese emperors were obligated to hear complaints brought from commoners in the provinces.

Four of the petitioners came to Beijing on April 28, 2012, were intercepted by the defendants and forcefully driven to a rented house where they spent one night before being sent back to Henan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. They then returned to the capital and reported the incident to the police. When officers arrested the defendants on May 2, they also released the other petitioners who had been holed up in a house for up to six days.

A photo on Xinhua's website showed a single-story brick house with a window covered up from the inside and bikes, a sofa and a clothes line sitting in the yard outside.

Xinhua said the seven adult and three juvenile defendants received sentences ranging from two years to six months. It said the defendants - farmers from Henan - rounded up the petitioners and illegally detained them in violation of citizens' personal rights.

The case is "certainly significant, but it's also probably the tip of the iceberg," said Hong Kong-based human rights researcher Joshua Rosenzweig.

The test will be whether this is just a one-off, or "one of a series of cases that will effectively punish the routine detention of petitioners, particularly in Beijing, but in other parts of China as well, and serve as a deterrent to those who might want to do the same in the future," he said.

The defendants were hired by a person called Fu Zhaoxin who is the subject of a separate case, according to Xinhua, but it was unclear who he was.

Beijing's Chaoyang District Court referred calls to the Beijing High Court's foreign affairs office, where calls rang unanswered. Calls to Wen Yu He court, a sub-branch of Chaoyang court where the verdict was reportedly announced, also were not answered.

Stopping people from traveling to Beijing to complain has become a priority for local officials, who are graded for promotion in part on their ability to keep the peace.